Yahoo Finance Barclays bosses feel heat from angry investors and climate protesters at AGM
Barclays chief Jes Staley faced down angry investors and calls for his resignation at a spiky annual general meeting today, which was disrupted by climate protesters taking to the stage to call on the bank to stop support for dirty industries.
Shareholders challenged the bank's top bosses on the lender’s under-performance, past misconduct, and bungled overhaul of its Smart Investor stockbroking platform at the event at the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster.
However Barclays’ highest profile new investor – the corporate raider Ed Bramson, whose vehicle Sherborne has built up a more than 5pc stake in the firm ahead of an expected campaign to overhaul its investment banking unit – was not seen in attendance.
Barclays chairman John McFarlane said bank bosses would meet Mr Bramson next week to discuss his proposals, adding: “We are always open to ideas.”
Mr McFarlane also moved to quash speculation he is planning a swift departure from the bank after three years.
He said that while he had instructed the board to prepare for a hunt for his successor, he had always intended to serve for a “minimum of four years”, adding: “You are not getting rid of me yet.”
The chairman of Barclays' investment bank, Sir Gerry Grimstone, has ruled himself out for the role.
Protesters from the campaign group People & Planet disrupted the event by accusing the bank of causing “climate violence” and chanted: “Fossil fuels have to go”. They were forcibly removed by security.
One of the protesters, Chris Saltmarsh, later told The Daily Telegraph: “We did the protest because we feel Barclays isn’t acting fast enough on climate change and it is still funding fossil fuel extraction and industries.”
He praised Barclays’s rival HSBC for last month turning its back on financing high carbon energy projects ahead of its own AGM under pressure from campaigners. He said the group was planning further protests against Barclays.
I’d rather stick wasps up my ass than recommend Smart Investor
Barclays shareholder at AGM
During questions from investors, two separate shareholders called for Mr Staley to be removed from his post over his attempts to unmask a whistleblower two years ago – for which he has recently been fined by City regulators but not banned.
“You should have known better than to bring shame on our bank,” said one investor, while another told Mr Staley he should resign for “failings of accountability”.
Barclays's Mr McFarlane defended his chief executive. He said Mr Staley had made a “mistake” by trying to find out who sent a “malicious letter” to the bank containing allegations about a colleague. He said the board’s response to the matter would have been “much more serious” if the letter come from inside the bank.
Barclays investors also poured scorn on the bank for technical failings on the relaunch of its Smart Investor platform last year, which led to outages and customers moving to rivals.
“I’d rather stick wasps up my ass than recommend Smart Investor,” said one disgruntled shareholders. All the resolutions passed at the AGM.
Mr McFarlane argued the bank’s recent first quarter results – which showed improved trading at its beleaguered investment bank despite an overall pre-tax loss due to hefty one-off misconduct charges – proved they had reached a “turning point in Barclays’s history”.
He said Barclays wanted to return more cash to shareholders through improved dividends and share buybacks in future.
